


you can wear your fur

by escherzo



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Columbus Blue Jackets, Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Savard family ensemble, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-30 17:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13956750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escherzo/pseuds/escherzo
Summary: Werewolves aren't exactly a secret in the league. An open secret, perhaps. Everyone knows there are weres on some teams, but like anything else in hockey, standing out from the crowd for anything other than your play doesn't go over well. It's not polite to mention it.Luc is a rookie who grew up in hockey culture, and he knows the score, so it's not something he talks about.





	you can wear your fur

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkatingSquids (ShippingEverything)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShippingEverything/gifts).



> It's mentioned in-text but I changed the date of the 3/31 Vancouver game to be the day before, because the NHL scheduler really did not have werewolf fluff fic in mind when they did this month's scheduling for CBJ. Rude. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, @skatingsquids! I had a lot of fun with this one.
> 
> Title from Blitzen Trapper's "Furr"

The Flyers game is a mess.

Luc puts his head down on the bench every spare moment. The pounding behind his eyes is so strong he can barely think; he's already committed two egregious turnovers he'll be hearing about in video review and taken an elbowing penalty he shouldn't have. When he looks out onto the ice sparks dance in front of his eyes.

Savy skates over during the TV timeout and rests his hand on Luc's shoulder, frowning down at him.

“Frérot,” he says, leaning close. “Your eyes are going yellow. Deep breaths. You made it through a blue month in January. You can do this one too.”

Luc nods dumbly. In the moment, it doesn't feel like he can make it.

They lose. It's not his fault—not directly, anyway—but he doesn't do much to help, either.

*

Normally, the leadup to the full moon isn't so bad. Luc gets a bit of a headache the day before, and a migraine if he doesn't shift as early as his body wants him to on the day of. He eats twice as much as he would normally. He cuddles the shit out of everyone. Largely harmless, all told.

Blue months are another matter entirely; it's just his luck, really, that his rookie year would be a year where there are two blue moons during the season. If he's fortunate, he can function on one or two days in the week beforehand without having to find a safe place to shift and not just curl up in a ball under the covers and long for death.

*

He's out as soon as he settles into his seat on the plane ride home, and wakes up to Josh nudging at his arm.

“Oh good,” Josh says. “I was going to get a glass of water to throw at you next if you didn't get up. We're home.”

“Mm,” Luc says, helpfully. He takes Josh's offered hand up and then pulls him into a hug, impulse control all fucked up in the moment. He blames the moon. The moon, or being half awake, or realistically, both. The moon is definitely why he leans in a bit to sniff at Josh though.

God, he smells nice.

“We need to get you into a real bed,” Savy says from over Josh's shoulder, eyebrows raised at him, and he flushes and takes a step back. Whoops.

“It's ok,” Josh says, smiling. “I know I'm comfy.”

*

Savy turns down the music as soon as he starts the car.

“How bad is it?” he asks, switching to French, which is a comfort to Luc when he's feeling this garbage.

“Couldn't concentrate at all. It's been coming and going all day but it was so bright on the ice and everything was too loud.”

Savy sighs. “It gets easier as you get older. Might want to get a tinted visor as an option for the future, though, just in case. But I'll have Val make us some of the good tea before bed. That should help a little.”

She's stayed up to meet them. She usually does, these days; keeping the babies on a regular schedule is a work in progress. Emma is starting to get to the age where she can control her shifting a little, but Elliott isn't, and when Luc and Savy come in Val's in the living room, settled back onto the couch as two tiny wolf pups chase each other around the room. The smaller one keeps flopping over.

Savy grins and sprawls out onto the floor, reaching for them both to tuck them against his side. The bigger one starts licking his nose, and he mock-scowls, stroking through the soft baby fur on her back.

“How was it?” Val asks.

“Could have been better,” Savy says. “Can you make Luc your tea? He's having a hard time with the blue month.”

“It's not that bad,” Luc lies, crouching down to pet the babies. They're both still so soft.

“Mhmm,” Val says, hoisting herself up off the couch. “That's what you said when you had the flu and don't think I didn't hear you puking your guts out half the night.”

Alright, she's got him there.

She's not a were herself, but she carries the gene, and her father's family is an old wolf line. The tea she makes for them is something of a family secret. Luc knows better than to press for the details. Even if she would tell him, which is no guarantee, he can kill a houseplant by looking at it and wouldn't have a prayer of growing the herbs he'd need.

When she comes back with a steaming mug, he's in the middle of trying to avoid being teethed on. The smaller pup has been chewing everyone's shoes—with teeth, as a wolf, mostly without, as a human toddler—for weeks now, and apparently his fingers are the best nearby substitute.

“Elliott,” she chides, hauling him back by his scruff. “Your big brother isn't for chewing on. Here you go, hon. I put some ice cubes in so it should be cool enough to drink.”

Luc takes the cup, beaming. It's never going to get old hearing himself referred to that way.

His headache melts away as he drinks, breathing in the earthy scent. Even the aches from the game and sleeping on the flight seem to fade away. He could sleep, peacefully, for a week.

“There you are,” she says, a little smug, gathering Elliott into her arms and rocking him back and forth. “Go get some sleep.”

“Alright,” he says, leaning down to drop a kiss onto Elliott's fuzzy forehead. “Good night.”

*

Werewolves aren't exactly a secret in the league. An open secret, perhaps. Everyone knows there are weres on some teams, but like anything else in hockey, standing out from the crowd for anything other than your play doesn't go over well. It's not polite to mention it. Some clickbait-oriented blogs talk about players who struggle near the full moon and speculate why, and everyone else considers them rather embarrassing. In the locker room, it comes up for some players and not others. Rookies don't volunteer that kind of information. Some veterans do, so that they can help the younger players who might need it—or usually, by the time they're the old guard they've had at least one moon where they've started to shift on the ice and had to go deal with an “equipment issue” for ten minutes while they got themselves back under control. So to an extent, people know. Certainly GMs and coaches are told.

But Luc is a rookie who grew up in hockey culture, and he knows the score, so it's not something he talks about.

*

Josh invites him over a lot, lately. He used to room with Zach, but Zach has decided to try striking out on his own—to mixed results, if the phone calls Luc overhears Savy having with Nick are any indication—and so now Josh lives alone too. There are some people who are suited to living alone. Luc is pretty sure Josh is not one of them.

They spend the Friday off between games on Josh's couch, playing Fortnite and watching a theater-cam version of Black Panther Josh got off some website that almost certainly gave his computer a virus. They're going to see it in theaters eventually. It's just not a great time of year to have the spare time to do it, really, and Luc is grateful for the smaller setting; he had some more of Val's tea before he came over, but there's still a headache creeping in around the edges, and he's not sure he could manage a packed theater and that kind of volume.

He's pressed up against Josh's side, trying to be subtle about taking in his scent. It may or may not be working. Josh looks over at him, flashing an exaggerated grin, before fake-yawning to put his arm around Luc and pull him a little closer. It's probably just bros. Cuddly bros.

Luc is going to resist burying his face into the crook of Josh's neck. That's probably not quite so bros.

The wolf in him is insisting “mine” very loudly, is the trouble, and the urge to just plant himself in Josh's lap and/or lick him is itching under his skin. This is objectively a terrible idea. That said, he is pretty glad this his wolf, unlike some people he knows and will not name for the sake of their dignity, doesn't express “mine” through the desire to pee on anyone.

“You wanna nap?” Josh asks, as Luc's character dies yet again because he can't concentrate. “My mom just sent me this one blanket she saw on a shopping channel. It's really soft.”

“There are things worth getting on those?” Luc asks, eyebrows up. “I thought they were just for people who couldn't get to sleep.”

“I mean, that too,” Josh says, helping Luc up off the couch. “C'mon.”

Josh wraps the both of them up in the blanket and lets Luc be the little spoon, and he drifts off to sleep with warmth all down his back and blissful softness clutched in his fists.

It's the best.

*

By the time they're ready to leave for the Cali swing, Luc is running a low-grade fever. Savy isn't much better; as much as he tries to claim it gets better with age his face is flushed and he keeps wincing when he thinks no one is looking. One of the new trade deadline guys is at the window seat in the furthest row, curled into a ball. Vanek, not Cole, even if sometimes having a good beard is a tip-off to other fuzzy things. Savy clarified that one for him earlier.

“You ok?” Josh asks, keeping his voice low as he settles in beside Luc on the plane. “Ate something bad? You look rough.”

“Just a bit of a fever,” Luc says, and Josh reaches over to put his palm to Luc's forehead.

“Jesus,” he says. “You're burning up.”

“I don't think I'm contagious yet--” or at all, but Josh doesn't need to know that “--it just kinda sucks right now.”

Josh nods, face twisting in sympathy, and roots around in his bag for his bottle of ibuprofen. Luc dry-swallows two and settles in for takeoff, and Josh shoots him a sympathetic smile as he clutches at the armrests. At some point he's going to get used to flying so regularly. Hasn't yet, though. He looks at Josh instead of out the window, and it helps, a little.

Normally this crush isn't distracting in a good way; Josh is so big and so kind and when he smiles at Luc he has to take a moment to gather himself so he doesn't stutter and trip over his words like fans do when they meet Wenny. But when it comes to flying, he's happy for the distraction.

It's easier once they're at altitude and the plane doesn't shake or turn so much. Luc half-heartedly joins in for the usual Euchre match, but after one round just sits out and watches the guys go at it. Jack is very serious about Euchre. Luc has gotten the sense that being good at it might be a Michigan Thing, because Zach's intensity towards the game is pretty near Jack's level, and new guy Ian is staring down Jack across the table like there might be a fist fight later depending on the outcome of the game.

“Z's eyebrow is twitching,” Josh whispers to him, barely suppressing a giggle. Luc grins back. It is, and it makes Zach look a little like a cartoon character that's just seen something horrifying.

“Do you think he knows it's happening?” Luc whispers back.

Zach hasn't noticed either of them staring, too busy glancing down at his cards and then up at Jack and Ian.

“Probably not,” Josh says.

They both have to shuffle off to another part of the plane before they start laughing outright. Luc barely makes it.

*

The fever is worse during the LA game. It's a mess from start to finish, and the game is never close, and all Luc wants to do is curl up under the covers and wolf out until he feels better.

Savy leads him out of the visitor's locker room, one of the new guys in tow, and to the home one as soon as he's gotten back into street clothes. Kopitar and Muzzin are both waiting outside, and Luc has been ready to shift for hours now and so all he can do is nod at them and not think too much about the why.

Kopitar's wife has a van waiting outside. She makes a sympathetic noise at Luc and gestures towards the backseat, which is currently occupied by a large, curly dog.

“Gustl,” Kopitar tells him. “Go ahead and turn. This is safe.”

Luc is tired of fighting it and tired in general, and so he closes his eyes and lets it happen, lets the human in him slip away to paws. Gustl noses at him curiously.

He noses back. He smells like a friend, and his tail is wagging furiously.

There's not much room in the car to sniff at new friends, but eventually the side door opens and he and Gustl both bound out. It can't have been that long. This is still probably somewhere around LA. Some distant human part of him feels like he's seen it on some TV show, but he can't place it. But there are so many smells and nice scrubby trees and a creek and all he wants to do is _run_. Gustl beams at him and, oh, he's got good company for that it turns out.

They chase each other around the trees and up the hills and drink from the stream when they're tired and when Luc howls at the full moon Gustl barks along happily. There are other wolves in the park, probably Savy and the Kings guys, but his attention is on his new fluffy friend.

Later in the night, they both flop down into the dirt and Luc pillows his head on Gustl's belly, yipping contentedly. He's so nice and soft. They nap there on the ground, the soft rise and fall of Gustl's belly lulling Luc into sleep.

When he wakes up, he's a person again.

“Thanks, buddy,” he says, scratching behind Gustl's ears. “I had fun.”

Gustl licks his hand.

“Me too,” Luc says.

“Ready to go?” Savy asks from behind him. The sky is starting to get light, and Luc feels a thousand times better than he had yesterday, and he takes a moment to stretch out properly before hoisting himself up.

“Ready,” Luc confirms.

When they get back to the hotel, the door next to Luc's—Josh's room--cracks open for a moment as he opens up his door.

“Everything ok?” is the text he gets as soon as he closes the door behind him.

Luc sends a thumbs up emoji.

Sonny is sacked out and snoring like a buzzsaw on the other bed, but the stress of the week has faded out of Luc's bones and he could probably sleep for twelve hours at this point. He turns his phone on silent, sets it on the nightstand, and passes out fully dressed. When he wakes up, he follows Gustl on twitter.

*

Josh keeps sneaking him little looks on the bus ride to the Anaheim game. He looks back, once, shrugs, and tries to ignore it, but he can still feel Josh's eyes on him. Sonny parked himself down next to him so he and Josh aren't sitting together—Josh is sitting next to Zach instead—but there's a level of curiosity he's picking up on that makes him on edge. Next time they have time alone, he's probably going to have to address this properly.

But they lose the Anaheim game in miserable fashion too, and curiosity notwithstanding, Josh doesn't look much in the mood to talk to anyone.

*

Thank God there's a day off after. Luc feels worn down to his bones, working off all the residual energy of the moon by hitting everything that moved on Friday. He takes a long bath once they get to the hotel in San Jose, pouring the hotel body wash into the tub to get some bubbles, and watches a few of the games he's missed with his laptop propped on the toilet and the volume way up.

As he's drying off, there's a knock on his door.

“Room service?” he asks, in a high-pitched, jokey voice, but he kind of figured it'd be Josh and it is. He's still only in a towel, but Josh has seen worse in the locker room. He can probably manage.

“Hey,” Josh says, and his cheeks are faintly flushed. “Just wanted to come see if you were alright. You looked really bad before the Kings game.”

“I'm good,” Luc confirms.

“Good,” Josh says, scratching the back of his neck. “If this is a bad time I can go? Um.”

“No, it's cool. Just give me a few to get dressed.”

He throws on some pajama pants and the first t-shirt he can find, a well-loved Cape Breton one that's somehow gotten softer with age. Josh is settled in on his bed when he gets out of the bathroom.

“Sonny coming back any time soon?” Josh asks.

Luc shrugs. “He knows someone who knows someone around here, he's probably busy smoking up right now.”

Josh hmms and starts flipping through channels on the TV, only glancing over briefly as Luc settles in next to him. When he settles on a movie, Luc chokes on air and has to pretend he just needs to cough all of a sudden because, well.

“Wolfcop is full-on horror comedy,” the description reads, “but it’s delirious good fun. When an alcoholic small-town Canadian cop gets cursed and turned into a werewolf, he retains all of his human faculties—above all, a respect for the LAW. Using his newfound werewolf superpowers, he opposes the local cabal of reptilian shapeshifters.”

It's a great movie, but Luc keeps glancing over at Josh the whole time—does he _know_? Is he fucking with Luc? Is this just a weird coincidence?

“So I should probably tell you something,” he blurts out eventually. Josh pauses the movie and shifts to look at him properly. “I'm a werewolf.”

“Uh.”

“No, seriously. Did you already know? Is that why you picked this movie?”

“... no? Z said it was funny. Can you turn whenever?”

Josh looks faintly skeptical, but not like he thinks Luc is nuts or anything, and so Luc shrugs and says, “sometimes? Mostly I turn during the moon but I can do it other times if I concentrate.”

He frowns, closing his eyes and thinking as many wolf thoughts as he can. Nothing happens.

“... you aren't just fucking with me, are you?” Josh asks, only sort of suppressing a nervous giggle.

“No!” Luc says, frowning harder. “I swear it's true. You can ask Savy. He's one too. And his kids.” He starts giggling a little himself, too anxious to do much else, and then he looks at Josh's big smile and they both lose it, falling into each other giggling.

“Oh I knew about _him_ ,” Josh manages after a moment. “No human can have a beard that great.”

Josh reaches out, stroking through Luc's hair, and Luc hmms approvingly, the noise turning into a low growl as Josh scratches behind his ears, and Josh pulls back, eyes wide.

“All good,” Luc says, trying to smile reassuringly, though he knows his canines are longer than normal and that's probably not very reassuring. “I won't eat you.”

“My, what big teeth you have,” Josh teases, reaching out to poke at the point of one, but he goes back to running his fingers through Luc's hair, and he closes his eyes and sighs contentedly.

*

It's probably not that weight being lifted that makes the difference in the Sharks game, but they win, finally getting two points out of this hell-trip, and he'll take it.

He sleeps on Josh's shoulder all the way home.

*

On an off day the week after, Josh shows up on his doorstep. The only warning he gave was a text saying “I'm coming over :)”.

Not that Luc minds, really. It's just that it's Savy's house, not his, and so it always feels rude to just have people over unannounced. Savy doesn't seem to mind though. He's in the middle of making a bottle for Elliott when Josh walks in, and he looks between the two of them, nods to himself, and walks off without another word. He comes back moments later and tells Luc, “Have fun babysitting.”

“What did he say?” Josh asks, frowning. Oh, right. Luc forgets sometimes that Josh doesn't know French. It's basically the only thing they use around the house unless Savy is reading books to the kids in English so that they grow up properly bilingual.

“Apparently we're on babysitting duty,” Luc says, trying and failing to hide a smile. “Guess they're going out for date night.”

“Were they going to before?”

Luc shrugs. “Probably not, but there's two of us now. They're good babies. It'll be fine.”

Val is dressed nice when she comes down the stairs, but a rushed sort of nice. Luc wouldn't be able to spot it if he hadn't been living with them for the whole year, but she's done a quick pass-through on her makeup and tossed on a dress that looks fancy but just slips right on. He smiles at her.

“Elliott will need to be down for a nap in about two hours,” she says, sorting through the coats in the front closet to find one that matches. “If you get hungry there's still the tortierre in the fridge.”

“Have fun,” Luc says, watching as Savy scurries down the stairs, only one arm in his suit jacket so far. “Going out for dinner?”

“Yeah,” Savy says, pulling his jacket on the rest of the way and straightening it out. “Probably a movie too.”

Josh has been silently observing the proceedings, a faint smile on his face, but as soon as they walk out the door, he turns to Luc.

“... you know I have no idea how to babysit anyone, right?”

“They're easy,” Luc reassures him. “Emma, come color with us!”

“Okay!” a tiny voice says from upstairs.

There's a stack of paper and markers on the coffee table, and Luc dutifully distributes a few sheets to Josh and Emma and puts the markers down where she can reach them. She's gotten really into drawing lately. Mostly she just does interestingly-colored scribbles, but this time she does a stick figure family, Savy and Val and Luc and herself and a little puppy, all the people with giant rake-looking hands. He's pretty sure she's given him seven fingers.

“Do you have a dog?” Josh asks, peering over at her drawing.

“You're silly, Uncle Josh,” she says, giggling and going back to scribbling in hair on her mom.

“Is she judging me? I feel like she's judging me.”

“She's judging you,” Luc confirms.

There's a faint yipping from upstairs and Luc gets up and peers up the stairs—Elliott is a puppy again, but like usual, he's afraid of going down the stairs even though he wants to be with the rest of them. Luc sighs fondly and scoops him up into his arms.

“This is Elliott,” Luc says to Josh as he comes back to the living room, leaning down to kiss Elliott's forehead.

“I thought Elliott was Savy's newborn,” Josh says, and Emma rolls her eyes.

“He _is_. Jeez.”

“I did tell you his babies were weres too,” Luc says, setting Elliott down. He runs around the room a few times and then starts nosing at Emma, and she giggles and then shifts into puppy form herself, and then it's a mad chase from living room to kitchen and back again.

Josh's eyes are so wide. Luc wants to laugh, but disguises it with a cough. And then Elliott walks in with Josh's shoe in his mouth, chewing on it contentedly, and Luc can't contain himself anymore.

“That's my shoe!” Josh protests, and his voice goes a little squeaky, and Luc just laughs harder.

“He's teething,” he manages.

“That puppy has all its teeth!”

“As a human baby he's teething. As a wolf baby he just has no impulse control.”

He scoops Emma, who followed Elliott in, up into his arms, rubbing her soft belly, and she closes her eyes and sticks her tongue out a little, blissful. She's way less of a monster of a toddler like this. Even if she does sometimes pee on his stuff.

“You know,” Josh says, tugging at the shoe in Elliott's mouth to try and extricate it, “I did kinda think you were joking before.”

“Nope,” Luc confirms, rocking Emma back and forth gently, and Josh stares at him, a soft smile at the corners of his mouth, a look so affectionate Luc has to bury his face in the soft fluff of Emma's underside to hide from. It's a lot.

Josh sprawls out on the floor properly and draws Elliott close, stroking his back. “They're so soft,” he says, wondering. Elliott yips happily and then licks his nose.

“Like I said,” Luc says. “They're easy to babysit.”

They pass the time by tossing a tennis ball and letting the babies fight over who can be the one to bring it back. Luc showers them both in kisses, even when they don't do it right, and Josh watches, so fond it almost hurts.

It's a perfect evening.

(Even when Elliott pees on Josh's shoes, later)

*

They're finally on a bit of a roll, thank god, though Luc is getting the sense from the rest of the room that the non-rookies are terrified they're going to end up matched up against the Pens again. Nobody says it outright, but occasionally—especially in post-game interviews—it comes up, and every time it does the whole room goes tense. Bob especially, though he makes a good show of playing it cool.

Luc may or may not have called Coots going “so when you were a rookie you got a playoff rep for shutting down the Pens please give me what you have”. If you can't weasel that kind of information out of a guy you've trained with since you were a kid, what's the point, really?

Coots gave him some inside information but also promised to royally kick his ass should they end up drawing the Flyers instead, which seems about right really.

*

“So the full moon is coming up again,” Josh says one day, apropos of nothing, and sits himself down on the locker room bench right next to Luc, so close that Luc has to shift to get his arm out of the way. Their thighs are pressed together.

“Yeah, blue month,” Luc says, and then catches himself, because Josh probably doesn't know what that means. “Uh. Blue moon. Usually the moon isn't that bad but if there's two in a month it's harder.”

“Mm,” Josh says, and wraps his arm around Luc's waist to pull him in even closer. Luc flushes. “If it's a problem I'll quit but the wolf guys on the Knights liked cuddling near the moon.”

Luc has to take a moment to gather his thoughts and not be entirely distracted by how warm Josh is, but he manages to shake his head eventually. “No, it's good.”

“Knew it.” Josh gives him a squeeze and Luc yelps. He's ticklish.

Josh gets a mischievous glint in his eye and, uh oh.

That the next five minutes are entirely taken up by Josh trying to figure out just how ticklish he is and Luc trying and failing to bat him away shouldn't be a surprise, really.

*

“So where do you usually go for the moon?” Josh asks, plopping down in the seat beside him on the plane. It's going to be a long flight; he's never done the western Canada swing before, but Savy mentioned as much earlier.

Luc shrugs. “Around? Sometimes Savy's backyard, sometimes Torts' property.”

“No shit, really?” Josh pauses and then his eyes go a little wide. “Wait, he's not a werewolf, is he?”

Luc laughs, trying to imagine that. “No. He's got a lot of space for his dogs, though. They usually run with us.”

Josh settles in, tucks his arm around Luc's shoulders and rests his head on his arm. He's so cozy. Luc sends a quiet prayer of thanks to whoever in juniors taught Josh that this helped near the moon.

“They don't fight with you or anything?”

“One of his rescues tried to once, but he had a lot of issues. He's gotten better though.”

“Huh,” Josh says, and then reaches out to take Luc's hand as the plane starts to move. Luc grips it tight, trying not to dig his nails into the back of Josh's hand and only mostly succeeding as the plane leaves the ground. There's always a horrible swooping feeling in his stomach when they take off. He's not found a way around that yet, and it's only him holding onto Josh that keeps him from freaking out entirely.

*

They make it through. Luc is more tired than he's ever been in his life, a held-together mess of little aches and bruises. Maybe by year two he'll be used to the grind of a full season.

They're back home before the moon, this time. “You're welcome,” Torts tells him as they board the plane leaving Vancouver, and Luc frowns, unsure if there was something he's missed during the game—it doesn't sound like this was about ice time.

“What?”

“Game was originally going to be on the 31st. I had a word with a few people.”

Oh. Oh, wow. “Thank you.”

Torts nods, a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Christine told me Blaze was missing you.”

Luc grins. He does love that dog.

“Hey,” Josh asks, from behind Luc. “Would it be okay if I came along?”

“It won't get you extra ice time,” and okay, Torts is definitely fucking with Josh there, he's getting an all-too amused glint in his eye. “But yes.”

“You really want to?” Luc asks, as he settles in for the flight beside Josh. “I've heard it's... weird, sometimes, for people to see it.”

“I want to,” Josh says, soft. “If you'll let me. I want to see.”

“Of course.”

Luc makes the mistake of meeting Josh's eyes, and, oh. He looks so fond.

They get ready for takeoff and Josh laces their fingers together again, like last time, giving him a warm, steadying hand to hold so he won't be nervous on the flight, and Luc isn't even nervous at all this time, too distracted by how much he wants to wrap himself up in this feeling and never let it go. Too distracted thinking about wanting to kiss him.

*

Torts's place is out in Sunbury, far to the northeast of Columbus with acres of fields to run around in and no close neighbors. The sun is just starting to go down as Savy piles everyone into the car—Elliott is a puppy again, and so Val just sits in the backseat and holds him instead of putting him into his carseat, and Josh sits back there with her, scratching him behind the ears and laughing as he nibbles on Josh's fingers. Savy drives with a faint smile on his face the whole way, stealing glances back at his family. Emma is practically bouncing with excitement.

“Is the me puppy going to be there?” she asks as they cross the county line into Delaware.

“I think so,” Savy says, and then for Josh's benefit clarifies, “One of Torts's dogs is an Emma too. One M though.”

“I love her,” Emma beams.

As soon as they arive and Luc unbuckles her, she's a puppy too, and she bounds out straight to Torts's door. He and his wife and their dogs are already waiting, and he crouches down on hands and knees, getting to eye level with her.

“Aren't you supposed to wait for your family?” he asks, and she yips at him before going off to nose at dog-Ema.

“Everything's ready when you are,” Christine says, as the rest of the group comes up. “They've all been wanting to go out for a walk for the last hour, so don't keep them waiting.”

His property is fenced in, so the dogs can run without needing leashes, and there's a shed just before the start of the fields where Luc and Savy usually go to change. Luc takes Josh's hand, squeezes it, tells him, “Be right back.”

He slips out of his clothes and then out of his human form, bounding out into the field in the moonlight. Blaze runs right over, tail wagging furiously. Luc has missed him so much.

*

They all run together, like a good pack should.

*

Josh is waiting on the back porch steps when Luc gets tired of playing, later that night, sitting next to Val with Emma and Elliott both trying to climb on Val's lap at once. Luc noses at Josh. He smells so good, and he looks so nice, and Luc wants Josh to smell like the two of them. He tries to stick his head in further to smell at Josh better, and Josh yelps, laughing and shoving at his head, trying to close his legs. “Hey! _Hey!_ Luc, c'mon.”

Luc relents and settles for laying down beside Josh, head in his lap. Josh smiles down at him and strokes his fur and watches the others, still running back and forth in the distance.

“Guess what I have?” Josh says, waggling his eyebrows, and then reaches behind him to pull out a tennis ball. Ooh. Luc and the babies both perk up.

They all run after the ball as Josh heaves it out into the field, the babies tumbling over each other and tripping over their paws, and Luc gets there first, triumphantly retrieving his prize and bringing it back to Josh. Josh is his very favorite.

Josh is laughing his ass off, and only laughs harder when he throws the ball again and all Luc can think of to do is turn around and sprint right back after it.

Eventually Luc goes back to laying beside Josh, whuffing out a sigh and getting comfy against his legs, too tired to keep running. “You're good at fetch,” Josh informs him, still grinning, and Luc tries to grin back, though it's probably all teeth. He falls asleep like that, and wakes up much later, in the darkness of his own room at Savy's house. He's human again. Maybe Josh carried him to the car. Maybe Savy did.

There's warmth all along his back and as he blinks back into awareness, he realizes Josh is in the bed too, spooned up against him, a hand lazily resting on his side.

Luc is suddenly very, very aware that he is still naked.

“Uh,” he says, too loud, and Josh makes a confused noise.

“You were still a wolf when I fell asleep,” he says, not sounding quite awake enough to process this whole thing just yet. “Savy offered me the guest room but you're really comfy.”

“Thanks,” Luc says. The silence stretches on a beat too long, taking on an edge of something else entirely. Luc rolls over to face Josh. His face is faintly flushed, and he's smiling.

“Thank _you_ ,” Josh says. “For letting me see you like that.”

Luc grins and Josh takes a deep breath, blurts out “hey can I--” and then just goes for it, dropping a quick kiss to Luc's lips and then pulling back. “Sorry, I just--”

“Shh,” Luc says, and pulls him into a proper kiss. Josh relaxes into him, sliding a hand down Luc's back as he deepens the kiss, and Luc shivers at the sensation, nerves still on high alert from the change.

“I didn't know if it would be okay,” Josh admits, pulling back for a moment and resting his forehead against Luc's. “I hoped, but.”

“It's you,” Luc says. “Of course it's okay.”

He's still too exhausted to want to do much more than lazily make out with Josh, right then, but the whole time, Josh keeps having to break the kiss because he can't stop grinning, and his arms around Luc are so big and comforting. He could stay here forever.

*

Later, they both climb into Savy's giant tub together, Josh pressed all along Luc's back, and he hums contentedly as he picks leaves and twigs out of Luc's hair.

“Hey,” he asks, “what do Torts's dogs talk about?”

“Oh, you know, making sure you go about your business, block shots, that sort of thing.”

“Wait, really?”

Luc laughs so hard he starts hiccuping.

 


End file.
